Climate change for all to see

John Cunningham was an RSPB Community Outreach Volunteer in County Fermanagh and told us about the increasing awareness of climate change.

The effects of global climate change

"A significant indication of climate change is the number of ways in which we are being bombarded with information today.

Until a few years ago, there was no widespread public knowledge that global climate change was already making big alterations in weather, in plant growth, in animal behaviour, and in polar and glacial ice.

Back then you almost never saw a newspaper or TV report on the subject, even though scientists were very aware of what was going on.

The first article in National Geographic about the effects of global climate change was published in 1990.

Early springs and mild winters

Here in Fermanagh, I've noticed spring starts earlier each year what with the early hatching birds and early blooming spring flowers.

My personal impression of climate change is that winters are less severe now than they were when I was a child in the 60s. Heavy snow falls are less frequent. Long periods under snow were the norm then and not the exception.

In summer I am mowing the lawn earlier and more often. I have also noticed in the last few years an increase in the amount of green waste – grass trimmings and prunings – being produced.

So I don’t have to go further than my own back yard to see the effects of climate change."

John Cunningham was an RSPB Community Outreach Volunteer in County Fermanagh.